


Chocolate

by EternalElegy



Series: Adam Collection [4]
Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23860114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalElegy/pseuds/EternalElegy
Summary: Nagisa really liked chocolate and Ibara's cooking.
Relationships: Ran Nagisa/Saegusa Ibara
Series: Adam Collection [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702468
Kudos: 31





	Chocolate

Anzu took a look at the time and sighed. Recently, she had been pushing her dinner time later and later due to work, but this time, she resisted her urge to finish the email she had been writing and put her computer to sleep. The current time was 8PM and her stomach protested as she rose from her seat in her office, about to head to the lounge where she could use the microwave there to heat up her dinner.

There was a knock on the door.   
“Come in!” She called, and in walked the leader of Eden. “Ran-san, how can I help?”

“... I’m hungry. Ibara is busy, are you able to make me a snack, Producer?”   
“Oh! U-uh, sure!” Anzu was completely caught off guard by the request. Here he was, Nagisa Ran with all of his power and might as an idol, asking her for food as if she were a parent. “I have a banana that I brought with me today, I promise that it hasn’t gone bad. Would that be okay?”

Nagisa silently nodded. Anzu reached into her bag, pulled out the banana in question, and handed it to him.    
“Do you usually have a snack after practice?” She asked as Nagisa peeled the banana.   
“... No.” He took a bite.    
“Ah… well, I haven’t actually had dinner yet, so I’ll be going to the lounge to heat it up in the microwave.”   
“... Can I come with you?”    
“It’s getting a bit late though… shouldn’t you be going back to your dorm to rest?”

“... I’m going to see Ibara after he is finished today. I don’t want to walk to my dorm and then come back.”   
“Ah, okay. Let’s go to the lounge then.”

Small talk with Nagisa was awkward, to say the least. Anzu had to spend a lot of it initiating topics, and it was hard to see whether he was willingly engaged or if he was only responding to be polite. After all, Nagisa hadn’t been part of society for that long, and Anzu just assumed that he was only acting like this because he didn’t know how to navigate a conversation properly. When the food was hot, Anzu sat down at one of the sofas and began to eat, but Nagisa stared at her and it was unnerving.   
“Is something wrong, Ran-san?”   
“... No. Why do you ask?”   
“You’re looking at me as if you have something on your mind.” In all honesty, Nagisa’s facial expression gave away nothing and Anzu was making a stab in the dark, and fortunately she hit the nail on the head.

“... What are you eating?”   
“Oh, these? They’re dumplings. Have you not seen them before?”   
“... No. My family never cooked them and I rarely eat out.”   
“Well, the more you know.”   
“... How are they made?”    
“You get some dough, roll it out really thin, make circles out of them, wrap some filling with the dough and boil them.”    
“... It sounds interesting.”    
“They’re really fun to make, but it takes a bit of time. You should try one day!”

“... I will investigate it further in the future.” Another silence, and Anzu returned to eating, gluing her eyes to her food as making eye contact with Nagisa was awkward if she didn’t have anything to say. Once she was almost done, she made the mistake of looking back up, but Nagisa wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at the dumplings.    
“... I’m still hungry.” Anzu knew what Nagisa was indirectly trying to say, but it was too late. She put the last dumpling into her mouth and she saw the slightest bit of defeat in his eyes.   
“Sorry, I don’t have any more food on me…” Anzu replied after she finished chewing, putting her chopsticks back inside the container. 

“... It’s okay. I will go and see Ibara now.” Nagisa stood up and turned to leave.   
“Ah, do you know where he is?”    
“... He said that he’d be in the gym.”   
“Okay, I’ll see you later then.” Anzu put the container back into her bag, before realising that Nagisa was standing there. “Do you need help?”   
“... I don’t know where the gym is. Can you take me there?”   
“Sure thing, just this way…”

* * *

“Your Excellency! I’m glad to see you!” Ibara beamed as he wiped the sweat off his face and neck. “Producer too!! Did you want to talk to me about something? Please accept my apologies for my current unpresentable state, you see, I have just finished my workout!”   
“It’s alright, I was just escorting Ran-san here. He didn’t know where the gym was.” Anzu replied, returning his smile. 

“Thank you for taking care of His Excellency! Ah, it’s getting quite late… I shouldn’t waste any more of your precious time, Producer!”   
“I’ll hand off Ran-san to you, then. See you around!” Anzu waved and exited the gym, leaving Nagisa and Ibara alone.

Ibara cleaned his glasses and slipped on the jacket that he usually wore over his plain white T-shirt.   
“We didn’t schedule to meet together today, Your Excellency! Is something the matter?”   
“... I’m hungry. Anzu gave me a banana but it wasn’t enough.”    
“Very thoughtful of her to give you something healthy! I’ll make something for you, let’s go to the kitchen!” 

Ibara settled quickly on a small fruit salad and when they arrived at the kitchen, he immediately got to work. He didn’t realise that Nagisa had been looking at him until after he had finished putting everything into a bowl.   
“Ah, was there something in particular that you wanted? Did you have a favourite fruit?”   
“... No, this is fine. Thank you.” Ibara handed Nagisa a fork and the leader of Eden began digging in immediately.    
“Well… I’m going to go and make myself some dinner now, so you can make yourself comfortable in the dining area. I won’t be long!” Ibara began to wash the chopping board, expecting Nagisa to follow his instructions.   
“... I want to watch you cook.”

Memories of a particular morning spent making breakfast flooded back.   
“... Sorry, am I going to be in the way?” Nagisa asked when Ibara didn’t immediately respond.    
“U-um, it would be preferable if you stood some distance away! I’m going to be using the knife and it would be bad if I accidentally cut you!” The redhead would have been lying if he said that he didn’t enjoy the feeling of being hugged and kissed from behind, but more than anything else, he didn't want to hurt Nagisa.   
“... Okay.” Nagisa positioned himself across the bench.

Ibara tried his best to do everything as naturally as possible, but something about being watched like this was making him at least a little nervous. Every now and then he snuck glances at Nagisa to see if he could get any hints of what he was thinking, and for the first few times, Nagisa wasn’t even watching as he was too busy with his own food. He downed the fruit a lot more quickly than Ibara had anticipated and then it was as if he was giving Nagisa some kind of private performance, except instead of singing and dancing on stage, Ibara was cooking his own dinner. 

Today’s menu was a simple pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs and some salad on the side. Ibara brought his food over to the dining table and began to eat… only to realise that Nagisa was staring at him with some kind of intensity.   
“Hmm? Is something the matter?”   
“... I’m still hungry.”    
“I can’t give you too much to eat, you know! It’s important to maintain a proper diet!”    
“... Your cooking looks delicious. Can I have a bite?” 

Usually, Ibara was almost immune to manipulation, but Nagisa gave him his own version of puppy dog eyes and it was super effective.   
“Okay okay fine, you don’t need to look at me like that! I’ll give you a bit.” Ibara stabbed some of the pasta with his fork and held it to Nagisa’s mouth, who eagerly ate from it. The way Nagisa opened his mouth in anticipation as Ibara’s fork neared it, and then those lips gently pulled the pasta off the utensil as Ibara retracted it… Holy shit, it was so adorable and the redhead really thought he was going to die from cuteness overload.   
“... It was delicious. Thank you.” Nagisa gave Ibara a head pat and Ibara’s soul departed from his body temporarily. By the time he came to his senses again, Nagisa had taken the fork from his hand and downed a good portion of his dinner.

“W-wait, I’m supposed to be the one eating that!” Ibara exclaimed.   
“... You can make some more, can’t you?”    
“You shouldn’t be eating any of it in the first place! Your diet-”   
“... Am I not allowed to have something nice every now and then?”    
“Yes, but-”   
“... Then give me something nice the next time we meet at the garden.”   
“O-okay!”   
“... Thank you again for the food. I will be going back to my dorm now.” Nagisa stood up and left the dining area.

Ibara thanked whatever higher power there was that they had been alone this whole time, having someone else see it would surely spell the end of the world for him. He looked down at his partially-emptied plate. Ibara hated to admit it, but sacrificing some of his food was all worth seeing Nagisa like that. Right at that moment, he pictured it again, and he got a strong urge to faceplant into the table. Nagisa was too cute for his own good.

* * *

_ A few days later... _

“Hello, Eden! My apologies for turning up to lunch late, but I had a particularly long and urgent email to respond to and I was caught up with that!” Ibara hurried into the cafeteria with his trademark smile, setting down his tablet before assuming his seat. Hiyori already looked cross, Jun had a neutral expression and Nagisa gave no reaction.   
“You set yourself a new record of five minutes, Ibara! Maybe one day you’ll be on time!” Hiyori responded sarcastically, about to dig into his salmon quiche.    
“It can’t be helped if he’s busy, Ohii-san…” Jun sighed, taking a bite out of his sandwich.   
“But he was the one who organised that we should meet for lunch whenever possible!”    
“Being able to sit with everyone else is kind of nice though…” Jun commented. 

“... I agree. This way… maybe this is how Trickstar became so strong in such a short period of time.” Nagisa added.   
“It’s important not to get too close to each other! We’re just partners in business!” Ibara exclaimed. Hiyori was tempted to make some joke about the relationship between Ibara and Nagisa, but they were in public and having someone overhear it could cause rumours to circulate.   
“Being able to rely on others takes a big weight off you, you know! Just relying on yourself is not good if you have too much to handle, that’s not fine weather!” Hiyori argued.    
“Ahem, since I have pressing matters to attend to, I will be eating faster so I can-” Ibara tried to cut the conversation short.   
“... Ibara.”    
“Your Excellency?”   
“... Do you have chocolate on you?”

“N-no! Why do you ask?” Hiyori smirked as Ibara stuttered.    
“... I can smell it from you.”    
“You must be having delusions because you’re hungry, Your Excellency!”    
“Now that Nagi-senpai mentioned it, I can smell it too.” Jun commented.    
“Ah~ the sweet smell of good chocolate~” Hiyori hummed. Ibara blushed and adjusted his glasses in an attempt to hide his rapidly reddening face.   
“Fine, I guess I will have to tell the truth! Some staff pooled together some funds to give me chocolate as a gift and they looked so good I couldn’t resist taking a few bites! What you can smell is some residual chocolate on my hands!” 

The Eve pair gave Ibara quizzical looks.   
“Aren’t you usually strict about your diet?” Jun asked.   
“Yes, of course, but I have been without something sweet for so long-”   
“... I didn’t know you liked chocolate.” Nagisa eyed Ibara suspiciously.    
“I-it’s one of my guilty pleasures! Anyway, we should focus on the work that we have ahead, let’s talk about practice!” 

They all let Ibara change the topic, but they also knew that he wasn’t telling the full truth.

After lunch was finished, Nagisa dragged Ibara to the men’s bathroom before pinning him against the wall.

“Your Excellency! Please let me go, someone could walk in!”   
“... No.” Nagisa's breath was hot on Ibara’s lips, his voice low and husky. Before Ibara could react, he was already being kissed, and he couldn’t help but open his mouth to let Nagisa explore it with his tongue. Ibara’s heart was pounding fast and hard at the prospect of someone seeing them and it made him feel terribly nervous. He wanted to shove Nagisa off and give him a talking about the dangers of someone finding out, but the kiss was causing his brain to short-circuit.

As Ibara approached the limit of how long he could hold his breath for, he gained a surge of willpower and pushed at Nagisa’s chest as hard as he could using his free hand. Luckily, he got the message, stopping the kiss and stepping away.   
“Why did you do that?” Ibara was still trying to regain his composure.   
“... You said that you ate some chocolate, but I couldn’t taste any.” Nagisa was back to his soft, gentle self. Ibara realised that Nagisa had just put on an act to get him to open up.   
“D-don’t scare me like that! I really thought that you wanted to do  _ that _ !”    
“... I just wanted chocolate.” Nagisa sounded disappointed as he looked downwards.   
“Ah, so that’s it! You could have told me!”   
“... I thought you wouldn’t have allowed me any.”   
“Um… I will say this, please look forward to tonight’s meeting!” Ibara beamed in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“... I always look forward to our meetings.” Nagisa walked out of the bathroom. Ibara had to spend a few more minutes to get his blush to fade completely.

* * *

Nagisa was seated on the bench in the garden area when Ibara practically ran towards him.   
“... You’re late again.” The leader of Eden commented as the redhead took a seat beside him.   
“I apologise greatly, Your Exc- Nagisa!”    
“... It’s okay. You’re busy after all. I should be grateful that we can meet alone at all.” Nagisa shuffled closer so that their sides were touching. “... You still smell like chocolate.”    
“Ah, um…” Ibara reached into his bag and took out a small box, offering it to Nagisa. “Here. It’s chocolate.”   
“... Hmm? You brought chocolate for me?”   
“Yes!”   
“... Isn’t it a gift from your staff? Wouldn’t it be rude for you to give it to someone else?”

“Actually, I lied earlier today at lunch. These chocolates are handmade by me.”    
“... Why did you lie to us?”   
“I didn’t want them to suspect that we have this kind of relationship.”    
“... You usually bring me gifts anyway.”   
“I’m supposed to be in charge of your diet and I can’t give you unhealthy things!”    
“... But you just offered me something unhealthy?”    
“I-I mean… you like chocolate and… I suppose that I can make an exception if it is a small amount.” Ibara turned away in embarrassment.

“... So… you smelt like chocolate because you were making them?”   
“Precisely! I finished them this morning.”   
“... Thank you, Ibara.” Nagisa opened the box and picked up a small piece. Ibara had done nothing fancy with them and they were just bite-sized cubes, but Nagisa inspected them like he would inspect a fossil.   
“I hope that they will be to your liking!”   
“... I’m sure that they will. After all, they were made with your love.” 

Ibara couldn’t help but smile at the comment, a familiar warm feeling blossoming in his chest. Nagisa put the piece of chocolate into his mouth and chewed slowly and suddenly Ibara felt nervous, thinking about the work that he put into this small box of goods and praying that he didn’t accidentally mess up one of the steps. Several days of practice in the kitchen with Niki had come down to this one moment and he hoped that he didn’t make a mistake when it mattered most. Nagisa swallowed and he looked down into the box as if in deep thought, and Ibara’s heart threatened to break out of its confinements in his chest as he waited for an inevitable verdict.

“... I think you should try it.” Nagisa turned to Ibara, offering him the opened box.   
“No, I’m fine! You should eat all of it, they’re for you, after all.”    
“... Are you sure? They taste very good.”   
“Yes, I’m sure!”   
“... It’s not fair if I’m the only one receiving love.”   
“Hmm?”   
“... I want to share the love too.”

Nagisa cut Ibara off by pressing his lips against his. Ibara usually wasn’t one for sweets, but he had to admit that the chocolates he made were absolutely delicious and he wanted more. Fortunately, Nagisa was more than willing to oblige, quickly deepening the kiss. Ibara closed his eyes and did his best to restrain his voice because Nagisa was a really good kisser and sometimes it frustrated him that the leader of Eden could pick up such a skill with so little time and experience. Every time Ibara thought that he could gain an upper hand, Nagisa shut him down, drowning him in warmth and happiness, and it made him want to just sit back and take it because it felt good. Maybe this was what he got for controlling him back when Nagisa was still in high school.

They broke off and the white-haired male reached into the box to take out another chocolate, holding it up to Ibara’s mouth. He remembered back to his military camp days when Yuzuru would pretend to spoon feed him as a joke and how he found it irritating, but this was different. Nagisa was looking at him with his lips slightly parted, a soft gaze locked onto Ibara’s eyes as he offered the chocolate like he was a pet being rewarded with a treat, and there was no way Ibara could resist. Ibara ate the chocolate and he was surprised by the explosion of flavour; tasting it from Nagisa’s mouth was one thing but this was on a completely new level of sweetness. It was delicate, perfectly balanced, not too rich but not too mellow. 

Ibara felt so triumphant, nailing the chocolate, that he wanted to laugh out loud.

The rest of the confectionery was finished far too quickly for Nagisa’s liking.    
“... Please continue to make chocolate for me, Ibara.”   
“Wait, did you just eat all of it?”   
“... Yes. Is there a problem?”   
“Yes! You’re not supposed to have that much sugar at once!” Nagisa chuckled.

“... It’s a little too late for you to be saying that.”    
“Also, I can’t just keep on making chocolate, people will know and then ask me why I’m making chocolate when I don’t even eat sweets. I’d like to avoid trouble as much as possible.”

“... But you went through the trouble of making these for me.” Nagisa wrapped an arm around Ibara’s shoulders.    
“U-um, that’s because…” For some reason, the words stuck in Ibara’s throat and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get them out.   
“... It’s okay. I know.” Nagisa leaned in and kissed Ibara’s forehead. “... I’d still like to be able to taste this chocolate again. Can you make more for me sometime in the future?”   
  


Ibara already had to spend so much effort into making time to make the chocolate, but just thinking about how happy Nagisa was eating it was more than enough to motivate him.   
“Of course. I’ll make them for as long as it makes you happy.” 


End file.
